


Book Worm

by JoesAlot



Category: Parahumans Series - Wildbow
Genre: Aphasia, Gen, One Shot, Post-Golden Morning (Parahumans)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-03
Updated: 2020-05-03
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:28:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23976748
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JoesAlot/pseuds/JoesAlot
Summary: Dragon teaches Khepri to read again. Now with less books.
Comments: 8
Kudos: 149





	Book Worm

For the nth time since the world had ended, Dragon had no idea what to think.

It had been a simple knock on the door. Dragon had come to answer it, as Colin was mostly preoccupied with cracking her restrictions these days. She had expected to see someone from the town downhill, coming to check on the two of them. 

She hadn't expected to find an unconscious girl. 

Much like an abandoned baby, the girl was laid out upon their doorstep, sound asleep, a towel under her head. Unlike a baby, she was eighteen years old, with her hair cut short and splayed around two deep scars on her scalp. The last time Dragon had seen this girl, she had been fighting in the thick of it all, while the world itself was falling apart.

And now, beyond all explanation, she was here.

Dragon couldn't handle this alone. "Colin, I know you're busy, but could you come over here? Slowly. There's something I need to confirm."

A few moments of silence, a grunt of acquiescence, and then footsteps, one after the other.

"Come a little closer." Another step. "Still closer." More steps. "Are you okay? Can you move your arms?" Dragon called out.

"I'm fine," Colin said flatly. "My arms are operational. What's going on?"

"It's… you know what? Just get over here."

The footsteps continued. "What? What is it-" Colin arrived beside Dragon and noticed her. He was right within her range. Dragon felt a surge of relief when nothing happened.

"What do we do with her?" Colin finally said. 

"We… keep her, I suppose. At least until we find her father."

"And if her father didn't make it?"

Dragon pursed her lips. "We can't think like that. We'll never get anywhere that way." She bent down and swooped the girl into her arms. She was light. Frail, almost. It was hard to believe that this was the girl who had terrorized so many, or the one who had saved so many more. The one who had saved the world.

The thought made her shake her head. Skitter, Weaver, Khepri, whatever they had called her in the past, at that moment the girl in Dragon's arms was just Taylor.

* * *

The Dragoncraft was spacious, but Dragon wasn't sure if it would house three at once. It was already as bare-bones a residence as it could be, and yet it still ended up being somewhat cramped. They had only one bed, big enough for two, the entirety of which was now dedicated to Taylor.

The two of them stood over Taylor's sleeping form in silence. There wasn't much that came to mind in the way of conversation.

Finally, Colin chose to break the ice. "She almost killed you."

"Yes," Dragon replied. "She didn't, though." Good start.

"We don't know what'll happen when she wakes up."

"She'll be confused, that's for sure, but she knows us. That may be a comfort, even if she's waking up somewhere unknown."

"Yes, however—"

Taylor stirred below. The two of them immediately went alert.

"Taylor?" Dragon said. As Taylor put her hands beneath herself, Colin put a hand on her back and helped her up.

"Taylor?" she said again, getting no response. Taylor turned toward Dragon and blinked.

Blink.

"Taylor?"

Blink.

"Taylor, can you hear me?" Dragon asked, looking Taylor in the eyes. Taylor stared right back, frowning slightly. She made a small sound of confusion, but that was all.

Dragon continued her questioning to no avail. As Taylor responded with wordless nonanswers, she found herself struck by a creeping feeling of unease. She recalled memories of the aphasic girl she had encountered on that distant day, mumbling incoherently, surrounded by her thralls, glassy eyes staring into the distance. It all but confirmed her suspicions.

Taylor didn't understand a word they were saying.

* * *

"Eat," Dragon said. "Eat the food."

The three of them were sitting at a dining table, set off to the side of the ship. The table was a hack job, just a sheet of metal Colin had welded to an iron rod on the floor, but it did its job and that was what mattered. 

"Eat," Dragon insisted. She knew Taylor couldn't understand her words, something she was planning to rectify in the coming days, but it had to be obvious what she was saying when there was food _right there._

Taylor clearly understood, too. However, after taking one bite of Dragon's chili, she had refused to take any more bites since. Dragon was hardly an expert in cooking, but this was just insulting.

"My cooking isn't _that_ bad," Dragon said. "Colin?"

Colin was finishing up his bowl, shoveling the last of the chili into his mouth. He looked at Dragon and shrugged. "It fills my stomach just fine."

Dragon wasn't too familiar with taste in general. She had a tongue, but it was impossible to obtain a complete frame of reference when it came to flavor. Cooking was a learning process for her. Knowing this didn't take the sting away from Taylor's flat refusal to eat Dragon's food.

"Come on, Taylor, you're going to starve if you don't eat."

Taylor's only response was to push the bowl away from herself.

Dragon sighed and went to fetch a banana.

* * *

Dragon and Taylor were face to face, sitting at the learning area Dragon had prepared. Pages and illustrations of varying degrees of completion surrounded them. Dragon held up a chart. "So, Taylor, today we're learning vowels."

No response, not that Dragon expected any.

"The vowels are A E I O U. We'll start with… 'I'. Said alone, that means yourself."

After another fruitless pause, Dragon continued. "Okay. Repeat after me. 'Eye.' _'Eyyye.'"_

"A-aaa," Taylor said. She frowned.

"…Close. Try saying 'Eeee' after that," Dragon directed.

"Ahhh… ehh. Ehh. Eh?" There was a short exhalation of annoyance from Taylor.

"You just have to press your tongue against your teeth. I'll show it to you. 'Eeee.'" Dragon opened her mouth wide to demonstrate. Pursing her lips after another failed attempt, she reached for Taylor's mouth. "Just— here, let me help you— no don't bite _don't bite—"_

* * *

"No," Taylor said plainly. It was just a regular plate of spaghetti. Dragon didn't know why Taylor was being so uncooperative.

"Come on, Taylor. Colin can eat it, why can't you?"

Colin prodded at his plate. "Actually, this time it is a little chunky-"

Dragon glared. Her fingers still ached.

"-nonetheless, quite good," he finished hastily.

"It doesn't matter if you don't like it, Taylor. You have to eat something." Dragon pointed at her mouth and then to her stomach. _"Eat."_

Taylor stared at Dragon. It was a judgemental look, resentful, one that made Dragon feel uncomfortable. Eventually, teeth grit, Taylor made a hissing noise and gathered a forkful of spaghetti, pointedly flicking off the small chunks of tomato that had clung onto the noodles. Rolling it up with a spin, Taylor shoved the entire thing into her mouth. Somehow, down to the chewing and swallowing, she made the whole process look excruciating.

After the third agonizing bite, Dragon gave up and fetched Taylor a bowl of fruit instead.

* * *

"Here, flashcards," Dragon said, laying out a set of vocabulary cards with accompanying pictures on the opposite ends. It was a close physical equivalent to her own method of learning when she’d been newly born. Connections, correlations, matching arbitrary pieces of information with their real-life equivalents.

It wasn't the fastest method out there, but it wasn't like she could just plug a dictionary into Taylor's head.

Taylor picked up one of the cards and turned it over in her hands. "Eye," she read before flipping it to view the picture on the other end. "Ahh… eee."

She stood up with a grimace, dropping the card, and for a second Dragon was worried that Taylor would storm off as she did so often. A few moments later, however, she returned with one of their old learning diagrams for vowels in her hands. Dragon blinked, confused.

"Eye," Taylor said, pointing to the 'I' on the diagram. She picked up the flashcard she had dropped. "Eye," she repeated, pointing at the organ, then back at the letter. "Eye. Eye. _Eye?!"_

Uh oh. "Ah… right." Dragon said. "You see… those are homophones," she explained before trailing off, realizing that she'd have a hard time even teaching the _word_ homophone, let alone explaining the concept behind it.

"Damnit," she whispered beneath her breath.

"Damnit," Taylor repeated, much to Dragon's dismay.

* * *

"What is it _this_ time, Taylor?"

Dragon had prepared some meatloaf and mashed potatoes, some of the simplest, easiest meals out there that couldn't be messed up, while also enjoyed by a good majority of people.

Taylor refused to take even the first bite.

"Just once. I promise you, Taylor, this one is fine, come on," Dragon pleaded. It fell upon deaf and uncomprehending ears.

Then Colin decided to intervene. "Taylor. Eat. Now," he said firmly.

After a long, tense and uncomfortable stare off with Colin, Taylor looked away and reluctantly began taking a spoonful of meatloaf.

"How'd you do that?" Dragon asked incredulously. Perhaps she had been going about things the wrong way, and Colin was better at working with Taylor.

Colin crossed his arms. "I don't know. Maybe I have the better people skills."

Of course, Colin was sometimes prone to being completely _wrong_ , so that idea was a bust. Still, he had gotten Taylor to try her food, so Dragon would let it slide this time.

After making a show out of hesitating beforehand, Taylor brought the spoonful into her mouth… chewed… and made a reluctant grunt of satisfaction.

"Finally, something you like," Dragon said with relief, mentally checking 'meatloaf' off in her head.

Then Taylor took a bite of the mashed potatoes, scrunched up her face, and spit it out.

"Right, I guess that's fair."

* * *

"Now that we've gotten some words down, how about a book, for once?" Dragon held up the flashcard illustration representing a book for emphasis.

Taylor seemed to brighten somewhat at this; previously she had been sulking on a chair.

Soon they were sitting side by side, reading from a book that Dragon had loaned from a resident of the town downhill.

"Mon- Mon Day… On Monday."

Dragon nodded. "Go on."

She squinted at the page. "He ate… through… one ah pull. Apple… apple…"

They continued reading through the book. To Dragon's confusion, Taylor became more and more agitated as they went along.

"On Tuez Day,"

"Tuesday," Dragon corrected.

"On Tuesday… he ate through two peers,"

"Pears."

 _"Pears,"_ Taylor gritted out. She continued reading. 

"On Wed Nez Day…"

"Wednesday," Dragon corrected.

Taylor frowned. _"Wed Nez Day,"_ she repeated insistently, pointing at the respective syllables.

"It looks that way, but it's actually pronounced Wednesday," Dragon said.

"Gah!" Taylor slammed the book shut. With that, she stood up from her chair and stormed off, leaving the copy of The Very Hungry Caterpillar on the table behind her.

* * *

"I just don't understand," Dragon said to Colin, who was busy at the computer terminal as always. Taylor was somewhere outside. Doing what, Dragon didn't know. "Every time we make some headway, she just gets angry about something and runs off."

Colin grunted. "Give her a break, she's learning the entire language from scratch. It can't be easy, knowing something, losing it, and then being forced to start from the ground up."

"I know…" Dragon sighed. "I just don't know why she always has to be so difficult about it."

"…Perhaps she feels impotent."

"Huh?"

Colin lifted his head from the terminal. "Maybe she feels like she's useless, like there's a standard that she must live up to but just can't reach. It must be frustrating, having something taught to you and failing to grasp it time after time."

Dragon went silent. She too had once been unable to speak. Two times, in fact. Once was upon her creation, a time when she had nothing: no sight, no hearing, no concept of language at all. It had been almost serene, floating in a world of her own, just existing.

The second time was much worse. Colin had tried to lift one of Dragon's restrictions, had even succeeded, but it had come at the cost of her speech. She had been able to understand words, but not reciprocate in kind. At the time, there was no solution in sight, and she had feared that she would be forced to stay that way forever.

She couldn't imagine not even being able to understand on top of that, to be closed off from everyone else. She sighed. "That's not… I wasn't… it's not her fault. I don't blame her at all."

"She may not see it that way."

Dragon slid her hands down her face, letting out a long breath. "I'm going out there."

* * *

Dragon found Taylor sitting on the edge of a boulder, overlooking the town across the hill. Her expression was conflicted. Pained, almost.

She walked up next to Taylor and sat down. She almost expected the girl to protest, but there was nothing.

"It's not your fault, you know?" Dragon started after a moment. "None of this, it's not you."

A pause.

"I… kn- know," Taylor said.

"Learning to speak isn't an easy task. Especially English. You've actually been doing quite well."

"...Es specially?" Taylor asked.

"It means very much."

"Mhh," Taylor said. "I don't like it. I am… bad at this." Taylor looked down at her lap and sighed. "Bad at… it. Can not get _it_ right."

"It's not your fault, Taylor," Dragon repeated. It didn't seem to have any visible effect. "It comes with time. One thing at a time. That's all we can do."

A few seconds passed as Taylor worked out Dragon's words. 

"Slow," she said. "Too slow. I… it… me…" she trailed off, at a loss for words. "Damnit."

Dragon choked out a laugh before she could stop herself. She hadn't even needed to teach Taylor what the word meant. "Damnit indeed…"

They lapsed into silence, something that was very common between the two of them. This time, though, it felt almost comfortable.

This time, Taylor was the one to speak up. "I want… I want…"

Dragon waited.

"I want it to be normal. I want to be back. I want… dad."

"Your father?"

Taylor paused to digest the word, rolling it around in her head, making the connection. Eventually, she nodded. "Father. Dad."

Dragon sighed and put a hand on Taylor's shoulder. She sagged into the point of contact. "We'll find him. Trust me. You'll get better." Dragon looked out at the fledgling town, looking so small beneath them. "It'll all get better. You'll see."


End file.
